"There"s no one would be better pleased to be certain that the fine palace on the wall there was not a castle in Spain. I think you know that."
"I do, Cave,--I know it well; but bear in mind, your best runs in the hunting-field have not always been when you have killed your fox. The pursuit, when it is well sustained, with its fair share of perils met, dared, and overcome,--this is success. Whatever keeps a man"s heart up and his courage high to the end, is no mean thing. I own to you I hope to win, and I don"t know that there is any such failure possible as would quench this hope."
"Just what Trafford said of you when he came back from that fishing-excursion," cried Cave, as though carried away by a sudden burst of thought.
"What a good fellow he is! Shall we have him up here to-night?"
"No; some of our men have been getting into sc.r.a.pes at Cagliari, and I have been obliged to ask him to stay there and keep things in order."
"Is his quarrel with his family final, or is there still an opening to reconciliation?"
"I "m afraid not. Some old preference of his mother"s for the youngest son has helped on the difference; and then certain stories she brought back from Ireland of Lionel"s doings there, or at least imputed doings, have, I suspect, steeled his father"s heart completely against him."
"I"ll stake my life on it there is nothing dishonorable to attach to him. What do they allege?"
"I have but a garbled version of the story, for from Trafford himself I have heard nothing; but I know, for I have seen the bills, he has lost largely at play to a very dangerous creditor, who also accuses him of designs on his wife; and the worst of this is that the latter suspicion originated with Lady Trafford."
"I could have sworn it. It was a woman"s quarrel, and she would sacrifice her own son for vengeance. I "ll be able to pay her a very refined compliment when I next see her, Cave, and tell her that she is not in the least altered from the day I first met her. And has Lionel been pa.s.sed over in the entail?"
"So he believes, and I think with too good reason."
"And all because he loved a girl whose alliance would confer honor on the proudest house in the land. I think I "ll go over and pay Holt a visit. It is upwards of forty years since I saw Sir Hugh, and I have a notion I could bring him to reason."
Cave shook his head doubtingly.
"Ay, to be sure," sighed Fossbrooke, "it does make a precious difference whether one remonstrates at the head of a fine fortune or pleads for justice in a miner"s jacket. I was forgetting that, Cave. Indeed, I am always forgetting it. And have they made no sort of settlement on Lionel,--nothing to compensate him for the loss of his just expectations?"
"I suspect not. He has told me nothing beyond the fact that he is to have the purchase-money for the lieutenant-colonelcy, which I was ready and willing to vacate in his favor, but which we are unable to negotiate, because he owes a heavy sum, to the payment of which this must go."
"Can nothing be done with his creditor?--can we not manage to secure the debt and pay the interest?"
"This same creditor is one not easily dealt with," said Cave, slowly.
"A money-lender?"
"No. He "s the man I just told you wanted to involve Trafford with his own wife. As dangerous a fellow as ever lived. I take shame to myself to own that, though acquainted with him for years, I never really knew his character till lately."
"Don"t think the worse of yourself for that, Cave. The faculty to read bad men at sight argues too much familiarity with badness. I like to hear a fellow say, "I never so much as suspected it." Is this, man"s name a secret?"
"No. Nothing of the kind. I don"t suppose you ever met him, but he is well known in the service,--better perhaps in India than at home,--he served on Rolffe"s staff in Bengal. His name is Sewell."
"What! Dudley Sewell?"
"Yes; that"s his name. Do you know him?"
"Do I know him!" muttered the old man, as he bent down and supported his head upon his hand.
"And do I wrong him in thinking him a dangerous fellow?" asked Cave.
But Fossbrooke made no answer; indeed, he never heard the question, so absorbed was he in his own thoughts.
"What do you know of him?" asked Cave, in a louder voice.
"Everything,--everything! I know all that he has done, and scores of things he would have done if he could. By what ill-luck was it that Trafiford came to know this man?"
"They met at the Cape, and Trafford went to visit him when they came over to Ireland. I suspect--I do not know it--but I suspect that there was some flirtation in the case. She is extremely pretty, and a coquette."
"I declare," said Fossbrooke, as he arose and paced the room, totally unattentive to all the other said,--"I declare I begin sometimes to think that the only real activity in life is on the part of the scoundrels. Half the honest people in the world pa.s.s their lives in forming good intentions, while the rogues go straight at their work and do it. Do you think, Cave, that Trafford would tell me frankly what has pa.s.sed between this man and himself?"
"I "m not sure. I mean, he might have some reserve on one point, and that is the very point on which his candor would be most important.
There have been letters, it would seem, that Sewell has got hold of, and threatens exposure, if some enormous demand be not complied with."
"What! Is the scoundrel so devoid of devices that he has to go back on an old exploded villany? Why, he played that game at Rangoon, and got five thousand pounds out of poor Beresford."
"I have heard something of that."
"Have heard of it! Who that ever served in India is not familiar with the story? What does Trafford mean by not coming up here, and telling me the whole story?"
"I "ll tell you what he means, Fossbrooke: he is heartily ashamed of himself; he is in love with another, and he knows that you know it; but he believes you may have heard stories to his detriment, and, tied as he is, or fancies he is, by a certain delicate reserve, he cannot go into his exculpation. There, in one word, is the reason that he is not here to-night; he asked me to put on him special duty, and save him from all the awkwardness of meeting you with a half-confidence."
"And I, meanwhile, have written off to Tom Lendrick to come over here with his sister, or to let us go and pay them a visit at the island."
"You never told me of this."
"Why should I? I was using the rights I possess over you as my guests, doing for you what I deemed best for your amus.e.m.e.nt."
"What answer have they given you?"
"None up to this; indeed, there has been scarcely time; and now, from what you tell me, I do not well know what answer I"d like to have from them."
For several minutes neither uttered a word; at last Fossbrooke said: "Trafford was right not to meet me. It has saved him some prevarication, and me some pa.s.sion. Write and tell him I said so."
"I can scarcely do that, without avowing that I have revealed to you more than I am willing to own."
"When you told me in whose hands he was, you told me more than all the rest. Few men can live in Dudley Sewells intimacy and come unscathed out of the companionship."
"That would tell ill for myself, for I have been of late on terms of much intimacy with him."
"You have n"t played with him?"
"Ay, but I have; and, what"s more, won of him," said Cave, laughing.
"You profited little by that turn of fortune," said Foss-brooke, sarcastically.
"You imply that he did not pay his debt; but you are wrong: he came to me the morning after we had played, and acquitted the sum lost."
"Why, I am entangling myself in the miracles I hear! That Sewell should lose is strange enough: that he should pay his losses is simply incredible."
"Your opinion of him would seem to be a very indifferent one."